1. Field of Invention
The present invention generally relates to the collection of media, and more particularly to a system and methods for the search, collection, saving, and segmentation of media for use in, among other things, a network-based multimedia presentation.
2. Related Art
Multimedia is media and content that utilizes a combination of different content forms. The term is used in contrast to media that only utilizes traditional forms of printed or hand-produced text and still graphics. In general, multimedia includes a combination of text, audio, still images, animation, video, and interactivity content forms. Multimedia is usually recorded and played, displayed, or accessed by information content processing devices, such as computerized and electronic devices. Multimedia finds its application in various areas including, but not limited to, social marketing, advertisement, art, education, entertainment, engineering, medicine, mathematics, business, scientific research and spatial temporal applications.
A variety of online websites are presently available to enable the creation and presentation including the publication of some form of multimedia. For example, MixerCast enables a user to build a social marketing application from scratch. Scrapblog enables a user to combine photos, videos, audio and text to create multimedia scrapbooks. Smilebox facilitates “creative messaging” that draws elements from photo services, scrapbooking, and e-cards.
Each website will typically provide one or more online tools for the creation and customization of the multimedia. Such online tools and/or desktop tools such as Photoshop, Illustrator, etc., allow the user to collect, edit, create, and publish or distribute the multimedia. In this regard, various style presentations may be utilized, photos may be resized and text may be added, video may be inserted, and/or links to other sites or presentations may be provided. Despite providing some level of customization, multimedia tools currently available are often cumbersome and difficult to use and thus limit the self-expression and creativity of the non-professional user when creating multimedia presentations. Accordingly, there exists a need for a relatively more robust multimedia creation tool including a system and methods for the search, collection, saving, and segmentation of media for use in, among other things, a network-based multimedia presentation.